After Batman fails to stop Kobra from getting away with a thermal bomb, Bruce sends Terry to a certain old friend of his named
Kairi Tanaga for further training. During his lessons, Terry meets another one of her students, a talented but strange and quiet loner named Zander who's always flanked by stern bodyguards and will only say that he's been raised to lead "his people." The two boys nonetheless start to bond and sneak out one night for a slice of pizza at Cheezy Dan's where Zander meets Max and gets his first taste of life in the normal world before he gets caught and pulled out of class. It's not long before Terry hears from him again, though, as Zander comes back to kidnap Max. One
Chase Scene later, Terry's left with a concussion and several cracked ribs, and Kobra's plan to splice themselves into dinosaurs and use the bomb to raise the temperature of the entire Earth and wipe out the human race so they can take over, not to mention their leader Zander's plan to make Max his queen, aren't going to wait for him to heal.
Tropes:
- Artificial Animal People: Many members of the Kobra cult have spliced themselves with snake DNA. Zander and a few of his henchmen turn themselves into human-dinosaur hybrids before they try to Take Over the World, and Zander even attempts to have Max spliced against her will to serve as his mate (though Batman stops them before they can do so).
- Artistic License – Geography: The truck driver at the beginning of the episode claims to have been on the I-17 for hours earlier that day. Interstate 17 is in Arizona, and Gotham is implied to be somewhere near New York City. Of course, since he's a disguised Kobra agent, and he's lying about the contents of the truck, it may be Five-Second Foreshadowing.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Kobra's entire Evil Plan hinges on the fact that dinosaurs are supposedly cold-blooded reptiles. The purpose of the plan also seems to be to combine the "strength of dinosaurs with the adaptability of humans," which doesn't mean a whole lot.
- Bio-Augmentation: The Kobra cult tries to use dinosaur DNA to create a new race of reptile-people and take over the Earth.
- Cat Fight: Between Max and the Kobra servant girls.
- The Chains of Commanding: Nominally, Zander is supposed to be Kobra's authoritarian leader, and although he is treated as such in many ways, he's also treated a lot like their slave or prisoner.
- Continuity Nod:
- Kairi Tanaga first appeared in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Day of the Samurai" as the daughter of Bruce's samurai teacher who was kidnapped by Kyodai Ken for revenge against both Bruce and Master Tanaga.
- Dr. Abel Cuvier from "Splicers" appears in Zander's flashback when he and Kobra splice themselves with dinosaur DNA.
- Max and Zander are playing Sentries of the Last Cosmos, an arcade game serving as a plot point in the eponymous episode.
- Gilded Cage: Max wakes up in one after Zander kidnaps her.
- Go-Go Enslavement: When Max regains consciousness after her scuffle with Zander, she's dressed in an Egyptian-esque tank top, skirt, and gold jewelry; naturally, she has no idea where they came from.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kairi sends Batman and Max out of Kobra's falling, burning base in an escape pod while she stays behind to stop Zander from catching them.
- Heroic Willpower: Terry gets back in the suit and hurries out to save Max despite being in extreme pain from his cracked ribs.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Zander's attraction to Max is a textbook case. In spite of how much contempt she obviously has for him, he still likes her because "she's so different from these mindless automatons I'm surrounded by."
- It's All My Fault: Terry blames himself for introducing Zander to Max. Bruce tells him not to dwell on it, not because he disagrees, but because "blaming's not productive."
- I Will Show You X!:
J-Man: [after Zander beats up his mooks] Not funny, man!
Zander: I'll show you funny!
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Kairi uses an exaggerated accent and broken English when working in the fish market to portray an uneducated worker. As a sensei, she drops both.
Terry: What happened to your accent?
Kairi: It helps sell fish.
- Scaled Up: Kobra's Evil Plan is to splice humans' DNA with dinosaurs' and raise the temperature of the Earth until it's uninhabitable for the rest of humanity so they'll be free to Take Over the World.
- Show Some Leg: Max distracts a scientist at the museum by flirting with him to give Terry time to look at his computer files.
- You Can Barely Breathe:
Bruce: Where are you going?
Terry: To save Max, as soon as you find the address that goes with that phone number.
Bruce: What about your breathing problem?
Terry: I'll breathe on the weekend. - You Need to Get Laid: It sounds like this is what Max means after Zander tells her how Kobra raised him, taught him everything he needs to know, and gave him anything he wanted.
Max: They should've made a girlfriend for you while they were at it...
- You're Insane!: When Xander outlines his plan to wipe out the world through triggered volcanic eruptions, while his followers will survive by turning themselves into dinosaurs and thriving off the excess heat:
Max: I think I finally get it now.
[Xander smiles]
Max: You're crazy! All of you! Certifiable, in need of medication!
